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Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Happy

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

And Happy Birthday to Hearth Cricket. A year ago I introduced this blog on February 10. The first regular post, Slow Food and a Writer’s Time, was on February 12. I’d debated for weeks about how to ease into blogging. Then I realized that despite the permanence of things on the Internet, individual posts are generally quite fleeting.

So I stopped worrying about greasing the skids and just jumped in as soon as I got back from a little winter vacay.

I’m awfully glad I did. At first I felt like I needed to have an author blog because that’s what authors do. At least a lot do. But I was afraid it would sap the creativity I wanted to hoard for my “real” writing.

The exact opposite has happened. Hearth Cricket has fed my creativity, has kept me writing even when I was in non-writing stages of my books like research, story development and editing. In fact, I’ve taken on more creative projects than ever in the last year. There is no hoarding of creativity. There is only the flow of it.

I’ve also made a lot of new virtual friends and stayed better connected to old ones. Who knew?

Next week I’m wandering off for another winter vacation, this time to Savannah, GA. We’ve never been, and I’ve always wanted to visit The Hostess of the South. While there, I’ll be researching another writing project. I’m playing around with the idea of leaving my computer at home (!) and surviving with notebook, pen, and I-Phone, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting here. I’ll let you know what I decide on Friday.

My husband and I went to Savannah a couple years ago to celebrate our anniversary. If you can get over to Tybee Island while you're there, I recommend it. It's a little chilly for the beach, but the island is fun. We climbed the lighthouse and ate lunch at the North Beach Grill (?) right next to it, and on the way back to Savannah we stopped at the fort so my husband could see them fire cannons. :)

I live in Colorado and write culinary and gardening mysteries as Bailey Cates, Bailey Cattrell, and Cricket McRae. Here you'll find a little book news, a lot of recipes, and musings on the writing life.